Rep. George Wortley: One never forgets a kindness (Your letters)

Former U.S. Rep. George C. Wortley, R-Fayetteville, represented Central New York in Congress for eight years from 1981 until 1989. File photo March 1986

To the Editor;

About 30 years ago, George Wortley took my 10-year old son's hands and placed them on the lectern that stands in the well of the House of Representatives.

"You are standing," he said, "in the exact spot where every president since Woodrow Wilson has stood to address Congress." He then proceeded to name each president since Wilson, concluding with Ronald Reagan who was then in office.

Mr. Wortley was the congressman representing the Syracuse area. My older son and I visited him one day while in Washington, D.C., during a spring school break. Without an appointment we stopped at his office at noontime. I introduced Mr. Wortley to my son, and he eagerly said, "Let me show you the House." Then took us across the street for a cook's tour of the House of Representatives.

Mr. Wortley handed my son his electronic voting card and asked him to swipe it, just as he did for congressional votes. He showed him a table used by the Whips that still had bullet marks from a terrorist attack on the House in 1954. He took us to a room off the floor where members of Congress once smoked cigars and kept abreast of news from the old teletype machines. He escorted my son to the Capitol rotunda and demonstrated how clearly one can hear a mere whisper.

I knew Mr. Wortley before his election to the House. As a Syracuse businessman, he worked with me on projects for Community General Hospital and for my previous employers. I had not been politically active, nor a campaign contributor. I was just a constituent to whom he showed kindness when my son and I stopped by. His enthusiasm for the Congress and for U.S. history was contagious.

Mr. Wortley was kind to my younger son, as well. He provided a reference letter to the adoption agency when my wife and I were in the process of adopting our younger son, who is foreign-born. After our son arrived in the U.S., Mr. Wortley sent him a touching personal letter.

The kindness and enthusiasm of George Wortley came to mind this morning when I read the news of his passing. Rest in peace, George.